MacTech Blog

Oct 24

Gartner: 40% of U.S. employees use personal devices...

Approximately 40% of U.S. consumers who work for large enterprises said they use their personally owned smartphone, desktop or laptop daily for some form of work purposes, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

The study, which was conducted in June 2014, surveyed more than 4,300 U.S. consumers about their technology usage and attitudes in order to gain a better picture of how devices are used for work and leisure.

"The lines between work and play are becoming more and more blurred as employees choose to 'use their own device' for work purposes whether sanctioned by an employer or not," said Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Devices that were once bought purely for personal use are increasingly being used for work and technology vendors and service providers need to respond to this."

More than 20 million on-cell TFT LCD touch panels shipped globally in 1H’14, after only 4.7 million were shipped in all of 2013, as the technology has been adopted in the expanding entry-level and mid-range smartphones market. By 2018, according to the latest NPD DisplaySearch (www.displaysearch.com) data, shipments of on-cell TFT LCD panels are expected to reach 129 million.

Embedded touch panels of all types, including in-cell and on-cell TFT LCDs, as well as on-cell AMOLED panels, accounted for 20% of all mobile phone displays in 2012, 29% in 2013, and an expected 32% in 2014.

"Overall the total embedded touch panel display market is expected to grow. However, individual manufacturer shipment shares still depend on Apple and Samsung, since they are the biggest customers for in-cell TFT LCDs and on-cell AMOLED panels," says Calvin Hsieh, research director at NPD DisplaySearch. Other brands...

However terabytes sold in Q2 2014 saw a double digit year-on-year growth due to decrease in dollar per gigabyte and is allowing the terabyte sold to grow irrespective of the revenue de-growth, says IDC. Q2 2014 witnessed a declining trend majorly due to slow movement of deals and vendor's focus on technologies like compression and de-duplication that is making the traditional storage more efficient, notes the research group.

The market is expected to revive in the coming quarters due to the positive business sentiment, investment announcements from the government and rising demand from the SMB segment particularly. Growing volume of data is pushing organizations to revisit...

Insurance industry IT managers in the UK plan to put their desktops on "diets" over the next 24 months. Research by IGEL Technology (http://tinyurl.com/pfxatqh), shows that thin and zero client adoption will increase by 19%.

Flexibility, security and speed of deployment are the main advantages of deploying thin client devices, according to the managers. Of the insurance companies recently surveyed, 78% currently run a centralized IT infrastructure. Eighty percent of these organizations have at least some thin or zero client desktops deployed.

While PCs still dominate the desktop landscape (they're at 42%), thin and zero client deployment has risen to 20%. Other players in the arena are notebooks—23% of users prefer these—and tablets with 19% of the user base. According to the managers running insurance industry IT departments, however, thin clients will rise to 39% of desktops within two...

Securing the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to be a considerable challenge in the next decade, not least because the security implications are more varied than for traditional IT settings, according to ABI Research (www.abirsearch.com).

New variables come into play, including safety considerations, consumer privacy, and data protection. Media coverage has hyped the advent of hacked toilets and spammer fridges, but the underlying trend is worrying because it highlights the fact that secure product development is not the norm for connected things.

The IoT is subject to numerous vulnerabilities at all of its core layers: perception, network, and application. The balance between cost and risk often means Things are less likely to employ more complex, resource-intensive security, such as access control and authentication.

"Some of these issues will be addressed at the gateway level or at the...

New data from the Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) research group says 37% of U.S. broadband households regularly use transactional services for OTT [over the top] video, such as online video rentals and downloads.

The vast majority of consumers making these a la carte purchases also have a streaming video subscription, emphasizing the potential role of transactional services to supplement subscription OTT. For example, approximately two-thirds of Amazon Instant Video subscribers also rent or purchase titles through the service, and their average expenditures are increasing. By contrast, expenditure on downloads among Netflix subscribers is decreasing.

"Subscription services are the most popular form of OTT video, but a transactional service that offers a wide selection of titles and easy-to-use controls can score with consumers and create new revenues," says Barbara Kraus,...

Makers and startups, not tech providers, consumer goods companies or enterprises, will drive acceptance, use and growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) through the creation of a multitude of niche applications, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). The research group predicts that, by 2017, 50% of IoT solutions (typically a product combined with a service) will originate in startups that are less than three years old.

Gartner defines "makers" as inventors, tinkerers and entrepreneurs who create and manufacture products using traditional tools and new digital design and rapid prototyping and manufacturing technologies. "Startups" are fledgling businesses that are often technology-focused and have the potential for high growth.

"Conventional wisdom is that the growth of the Internet of Things is driven by large enterprises. As is always the case, there is an element of truth in conventional wisdom and...

“Mobile device hardware, software, and usage have developed at an incredible rate in recent years, from network speeds, to screen resolution and size, to processing power," says Nick Spencer, senior practice director with the research group. "End user’s reliance on their smartphones also grows and grows, with mobile data usage experiencing exponential growth. One crucial part of the overall solution, battery life and charging technology, has been a laggard to date. Short battery life remains the biggest irritation to smartphone users and is a clear opportunity for handset vendors and carriers to improve the user experience by adopting new, longer-...

The worldwide Wi-Fi customer premises equipment (CPE) market is expected to grow 11% in 2014, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). The research group says total shipments of Wi-Fi access points, routers, and residential gateways are set to surpass 176 million units by the end of 2014.

"Growth is expected in all regions, driven by increased broadband penetration and more connected devices in homes," says Jake Saunders, vice president and practice director, ABI Research.

Since its WLAN market inception in 2013, shipments of the 802.11ac standard have accelerated. In the consumer Wi-Fi equipment market, D-Link and NETGEAR lead 802.11ac access point shipments.

"The combined shipments of the two companies represented more than 20% of worldwide 802.11ac shipments in 1Q 2014. ABI Research expects that nearly 32 million 802.11ac access points will be shipped in 2014," adds Khin Sandi Lynn...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows 46% of U.S. broadband households have a game console connected to the Internet and over one-quarter (28%) use the connected gaming console as their primary connected CE device. Among these primary console users, roughly three-quarters use the gaming console to access non-gaming content online at least weekly, and nearly 40% access such content for more than 10 hours per week.

"Gaming consoles are the most frequently used connected CE device because of their high adoption rates-of the broadband households that have only one connected CE device, nearly 60% have a game console," says Barbara Kraus, director of research at the research group."As the non-gaming capabilities of consoles have expanded, so too has the potential for consoles to become an entertainment platform for online content such as video, music, and apps."

While mobile devices are an integral part of the workplace, the cyber security practices and budgets in most organizations are not keeping pace with the growing number of devices that must be managed and kept secure. According to a new survey issued by Raytheon Company (http://www.raytheon.com), 52% of organizations and employees frequently sacrifice security practices to realize the efficiency benefits of mobile connectivity.

The report was conducted by information security industry company, Ponemon Institute. The comprehensive report is based on 618 respondents who implement enterprise security, manage mobile technologies and platforms, and set mobile strategy. Fifty-seven percent of respondents identified themselves as senior executives/managers.

According to the research, on average one-third of employees use mobile devices exclusively to do their work and this is expected to increase...

Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) says the importance of interoperability for consumers increases with each smart home device purchased. Currently 13% of U.S. broadband households own at least one smart home device, and 60% of those who have purchased three devices feel it is very important for the devices to work together as part of a system, says the research group.

"Smart home products are entering the market through a variety of channels, often separate from any system, but regardless consumers expect interoperability among devices," says Tom Kerber, director, Home Systems and Energy, Parks Associates. "Multiple players, including device manufacturers and service providers, have a stake in the connected home, but their objectives are not always aligned. This webcast examines the technology and business challenges in this ecosystem and analyzes the solutions necessary to deliver a...

Worldwide PC monitor shipments totaled 32.5 million units in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14), a year-over-year decline of -2.9%, according to IDC (www.idc.com). The research group expects worldwide shipments to continue on their current trajectory, slipping to 107 million units for the full year 2018.

"Despite the overall decline, there was a strong quarter-over-quarter growth rate of 11% in the United States and a slight increase in PC Monitor shipments in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan). In addition, the shipment totals were stronger than forecast by 4%," says Keerthi Maganti, research analyst, Worldwide PC Monitor Trackers at IDC.

The research group says:

° LED product technology adoption continues to increase with a new high of 93% market share in 2Q14. This represents a year-over-year increase of 10.5%.

° Screen size of 21.x-inches wide has held the largest worldwide share for the last seven...

Investment in big data technologies continues to expand, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc.(www.gartner.com), which found that 73% of respondents have invested or plan to invest in big data in the next 24 months, up from 64% in 2013.

The survey also indicates organizations are starting to get off the fence about their big data investment — the number of organizations stating they had no plans for big data investment fell from 31% in 2013 to 24% in 2014. The Gartner survey of 302 Gartner Research Circle members worldwide, which was conducted in June 2014, was designed to explore organizations' technology investment plans relating to big data, stages of big data adoption, business problems solved, data, technology and challenges and compare the results with those from previous years.

"Big data investment continues to be led by North America, with 47% of organizations reporting investment, up...

A recently completed Social Buying Study from the IDC (www.idc.com) research group concludes that 75% of the business-to-business (B2B) buyers studied and 84% of C-level/vice president executives use social media to support purchase decisions.

According to the findings of this global study, B2B buyers most active in using social media to support the buying process were more senior and had 84% bigger budgets, made 61% more purchase decisions, and had influence over a greater span of purchase decisions than those buyers who did not use social media to support their purchase process. The study indicates that social media increases decision-making confidence by providing more efficient access to an executive's professional network.

In the final stage of the purchasing process, when stakes are highest, online professional networks are the number 1 information resource preference of buyers. IDC believes that social...

The IDC (www.idc.com) research group has evaluated how the U.S. Federal Government is spending part of its IT budget on cloud-based solutions. According to the new forecast, cloud spending now represents about 5% of all IT spending by the federal government. IDC Government Insights expects that the growth will continue into FY2015 (fiscal year 2015).

For five years, both the U.S. Federal CIO Council and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have been pushing government agencies to move some types of IT systems to the cloud, particularly new systems, stored data, and mobile solutions. The ongoing level of spending on cloud solutions indicates that this effort is finally having a significant long-term effect. Total cloud spending is going up and the nature of cloud spending itself is changing.

iOS8 was introduced at WWDC with much hoopla but actually arrived with some problems, and has needed two updates since, the current one being 8.0.2. Also many users find it is too large to install without deleting a great deal of material from their iPuds. Hint: Use iTunes for the update. Given the usual spit and polish Apple puts into new releases, this whole episode seems odd, even a little Microsoftish--as if something has slipped there. Heads may roll.

ShellShock

As if that weren't bad enough, the world learned this week that good old reliable, well-hammered-upon UNIX in many flavours, including BSD (beneath OS X) and Linux has been harbouring a flaw in the Bash Shell most people use that would allow arbitrary code to be executed under some circumstances. It appears that some form of access would be needed to do this, but many systems are potentially vulnerable, including Macs not behind a firewall or...

Smart card shipments totaled eight billion units in 2013, with government ID, SIM, and payment and banking applications accounting for 87% of all shipments, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Of these three market verticals, Gemalto, Oberthur Technologies, G&D, and Morpho led the way with a combined 2013 market share of 66%. It is expected that these three applications will spurn market growth and account for 89% of all smart card shipments in 2019. The expectations and drivers for each of the three vertical markets are as follows:

° Government ID: Shipment volumes are expected to increase over twofold between 2013 and 2019. Opportunities in the continued migration to e-passports will be further boosted by the introduction of the SAC specification alongside migration to second generation credentials by those countries that wish to utilize and integrate contactless functionality...

By year-end 2017, over 20% of enterprises will have digital security services devoted to protecting business initiatives using devices and services in the Internet of Things, according to Gartner (www.gartner.com)/ Business cases using Internet of Things (IoT) devices already exist and their role in business and industry will force enterprises to secure them, according to the research group.

"The power of an Internet of Things device to change the state of environments and of itselfwill cause chief information security officers (CISOs) to redefine the scope of their security efforts beyond present responsibilities," says Earl Perkins, research vice president at Gartner. "IoT security needs will be driven by specific business use cases that are resistant to categorization, compelling CISOs to prioritize initial implementations of IoT scenarios by tactical risk. The requirements for securing the IoT will be complex,...

Mobile data sharing plans gaining popularity, but come at a higher cost
The aggressive deployment of LTE networks has encouraged higher data consumption, providing an opportunity for mobile operators to focus on introducing mobile plans with a higher data quota. According to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) data, countries that have a monthly data quota in the range of 8 to 10 GB have increased from 21% in 1Q 2014 to 83% of the total in 2Q 2014.

Facing a downward trend in ARPU [average return per user], mobile operators are in search of solutions to boost their income. The introduction of multi-tier, multi-device shared plans allow mobile operators to target different customer segments more effectively, and in some cases, increase the price.

Triton Digital (http://tritondigital.com), a technology provider for the audio industry, has unveiled its monthly "Ranker for July 2014," revealing the month’s 20 top streaming audio providers, as well as insights into listening trends. Overall listening continued to rise steadily in July 2014, increasing by more than 20% compared to July 2013.

Streaming audio on mobile devices was the big story this month, with listening increasing by more that 35% compared to the same period last year.

"The July Ranker gives strong support to a mobile listening trend that we expect to continue and even accelerate moving forward," says Rob Favre, CCO/GM Measurement & Analytics at Triton Digital. "As mobile devices proliferate and expand to include wearables such as the Apple Watch, streaming audio will play an important role in consumers’ experiences on those devices."

In light of a lackluster recent history coupled with rampant negativity associated with any PC-related market as of late, analyst firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR) is calling Q2'14 for the workstation market just that: a breakout quarter.

Completing its survey and analysis of market results for the second quarter, JPR (http://www.jonpeddie.com) reports the workstation industry achieved record levels for both unit volume and revenue. Worldwide, the industry shipped approximately 1.05 million workstations in the second quarter, corresponding to growth of 10.8% sequentially and 11.5% year-over-year (YoY).

The welcome jump in volume shook the market loose from its recent doldrums. While results from previous quarters had clearly shown the workstation market was on a different, healthier trajectory than the related market for mainstream client PCs, the basic truth is the market had been drifting sideways...

The worldwide storage software market increased 6.3% year over year during the second calendar quarter of 2014 (2Q14), according to IDC (www.idc.com). Revenue during the quarter totaled nearly US$3.8 billion, says the research group.

EMC, IBM, and Symantec were the top ranking storage software suppliers with market shares of 25.9%, 16.0%, and 13.3%, respectively. Data Protection & Recovery software sales were up 10.2% year over year to $1.45 billion in sales. Sales of Storage Infrastructure Software were up 10.8% year over year to $448 million. And Storage & Device Management Software sales were up 4.1% year over year to $708 million.

"The storage software market experienced broad growth across most functional markets in the second quarter," says Eric Sheppard, research director, Storage Software at IDC. "Sales of data protection and recovery software accounted for almost 60% of the net-new spending during...

The femtocell market will see a steady growth as revenues reach $4.2 billion in 2019 owing to a rise in enterprise unit shipments, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Top vendors focusing on the enterprise market are Alcatel-Lucent, Airvana, and Cisco. Interestingly, while enterprise shipments are on the rise, residential shipments are slowing down. ABI Research predicts slow steady growth at best for residential products for the foreseeable future.

With femtocell deployments mainly focusing on coverage, 3G units dominated shipments. However, with global roll-outs of LTE there is a growing demand for multi-mode products, especially in advanced markets such as the United States which is characterized by a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 130% in the next 5 years.

Wi-Fi integration continues to advance with major vendors supplying integrated solutions; either built-in or add-...

Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues fell -1.4% year over year to nearly $5.9 billion during the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14), according to the IDC research group (www.idc.com).

For the quarter, the total (internal plus external) disk storage systems market generated almost $7.8 billion in revenue. The modest 0.3% year-over-year increase was driven by strong internal storage sales within Asia/Pacific and emerging markets. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped was 11.5 exabytes. Growth of new capacity consumption improved during the quarter, but the 23.9% year-over-year growth was still relatively low by historic comparisons.

"High-end storage sales fell for the fourth consecutive quarter in 2Q14," says Eric Sheppard, research director, IDC. "The high-end decline was not as striking as last quarter but it was coupled with a drop in midrange sales, suggesting weak demand is spreading...

The indoor location market is now accelerating into the mainstream, with new contracts and deployments announced on an almost daily basis, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). The arrival of iBeacons has caught the imagination, but the reality is there are many more location technologies available, all of which have unique benefits.

"Many companies have focused on one technology or vertical, but it’s clear that both the opportunity and competition is much greater," says Patrick Connolly, ABI Research senior analyst. "The industry needs to consider the whole ecosystem and which technologies are best suited to each application and vertical."
For the first time, the industry can now see the full playing field, with a number of key trends already emerging:

° BLE beacons will take indoor location into a wide variety of verticals; this is not just for retail.

According to a new market research report from Transparency Market Research (www.transparencymarketresearch.com/), the global market for facial recognition will reach US$2.19 billion by 2019.

The market is driven by increased demand for surveillance systems by civil and government agencies, according to the research group. This is majorly due to rising number of crimes and terrorist activities across the globe that would elevate the demand for efficient facial recognition solutions/systems in the near future.

In addition, acceptance of facial recognition in the entertainment industry coupled with extensive use of facial recognition in consumer electronics is expected to fuel the demand for facial recognition technology in future. The report provides in-depth analysis of the market by segmenting it on the basis of parameters such as technology type and end-use...

The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments grew 9.2% year over year in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14).

According to IDC (www.idc.com), the enterprise segment continued to grow at a steady rate and increased 7.7% over the same period last year. While the pace of the enterprise WLAN market growth has been steadily decreasing over the last several quarters, the market continues to be one of the faster growing networking market segments, according to the research group.

The transition from the 802.11n standard to the newer and faster 802.11ac standard is progressing rapidly and above expectations in the enterprise segment. After just four quarters of product availability, the 802.11ac standard already accounts for 19% of dependent access point shipments and 30% of dependent access point revenues, a noticeably faster adoption rate than what the market experienced...

Bullhorn (www.bullhorn.com), which specializes in customer relationship management (CRM) software for the staffing and recruiting industries, has released its annual Social Recruiting Activity Report, based on the real usage data of 260,000 recruiters around the world leveraging the Bullhorn Reach social recruiting product.

While 97% of U.S. recruiters used LinkedIn for social recruiting in 2014, compared to 21% using Twitter and 19% using Facebook, Facebook was the only social network that saw any increase in share. The percentage of U.S. recruiters using Twitter declined rather substantially from 26% in 2013. And 71% of U.S. recruiters chose to use only LinkedIn for sourcing candidates and posting jobs, indicating that those who use the network are more reliant on it than ever before.

Parks Associates (http://www.parksassociates.com) says that, although a substantial number of consumers are starting to use digital tools to manage their health, they use them infrequently.

Twenty-eight percent of U.S. broadband households used digital communication tools—email, online portal, mobile phone and apps, and webcam—to communicate with their care providers in the past 12 months, but their average usage is only three times per year, says the research group.

"Thirteen percent of U.S. broadband households plan to purchase a connected health device in the next 12 months, but these people are largely self-motivated," says Harry Wang, director, Mobile Product and Health Research, Parks Associates. "Nearly 50% of current and future owners of digital wellness devices like pedometers and fitness trackers made or are planning the purchase because they want to live healthier. These...

ReportsnReports (www.reportsnreports.com). This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.1% from 2013 to 2018, according to the research group.

In the current scenario, web and e-commerce, healthcare, IT and telecommunication vertical continues to grow and are the largest contributor for NLP) software market. In terms of regional growth, North America is expected to be the biggest market in terms of revenue contribution. European and APAC region is expected to experience increased market traction, due to increasing adoption across various verticals and investment support in research projects from the regional government.

The MarketsandMarkets (www.marketsandmarkets.com) research group says the fiber optics market will be worth US$3 billion by 2019.

Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe dominated the fiber optics market in 2013 and accounted for over 90% of the market size in terms of value. The Asia-Pacific fiber optic market is currently at a growing stage. Government directives intended to increase and encourage national broadband applications which are among the main drivers of the market.

Country-wise, China is the top most consumer of fiber optics product, globally and is also the largest market for fiber optics products growing at a CAGR [compund annual growth rate] higher than the global average till 2019.

The U.S is the largest fiber optics consumer in the world. Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the fastest growth rate by 2019. The market in Asia-Pacific region is experiencing...

New data from MarketsandMarkets (www.marketsandmarkets.com) says the mobile cloud market will be worth US$46.90 billion by 2019. With the rise in demanding times, cloud computing has evolved to give space for the upsurge in the mobile cloud era which provides continual access to the cloud-based applications and services merely through one's mobile device such as smartphones and tablets, says the research group.

The mobile cloud market has significantly amalgamated the comprehensive offerings from the cloud vendors, telecom network operators, and application developers and merchants to substantially benefit its users comprising enterprises and consumers. The escalating demands from the users and the ease in provision of competent mobile cloud-based apps are in turn driving the growth in the mobile cloud market, says MarketsandMarkets.

New data from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) says that by 2019 worldwide revenues from tablet games will reach US$13.3 billion – a threefold rise on the 2014 figure of $3.6 billion.

The research group says that growth will be fueled by a number of key factors including improved storage capacity of devices, better graphical capabilities, increasing mobile broadband penetration and consumers’ preference for convenience and ubiquity. Juniper says that the next year could be critical for smaller, independent games developers.

The research group says that, in marketplaces now containing over one million apps, greater funding would be required to optimize the opportunity to achieve consumer awareness, and suggested that crowdfunding would represent an increasingly popular option. Juniper also says that there will be strong growth in monetizaation of smartphone games across emerging...

New digital health research from Parks Associates shows nearly 50% of California broadband households have used at least one online service offered by their doctors, compared to 42% nationally.

The research group's results are based on a 2Q 2014 nationwide survey of more than 5,000 U.S. broadband households, in advance of the firm’s inaugural Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers (www.connectedhealthsummit.com), taking place Sept. 4-5 at the Omni Hotel in San Diego.

"California is a leader in many technology markets, and digital health is no exception," says Harry Wang, director, Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates. "California consumers show higher levels of engagement, and this finding, coupled with the innovative offerings from multiple California-based companies, makes this state an important location for this expanding market. We chose to host the...

In the first quarter (1Q) of 2014, the worldwide mobile service revenue increased 0.58% year-on-year (YoY) to US$264 billion according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com), and the aggregate service revenue for 2014 will grow 2.9% YoY to US$1.01 trillion, mainly driven by the robust growth of the mobile Internet market.

Proliferating mobile data subscriptions and enhanced network capacity will drive global mobile Internet service revenue to US$456.7 billion by 2019—44.7% of total mobile service revenue, says the research group. Despite global service revenue growth, the Western European market is declining: 1Q 2014 service revenue declined 5.2% YoY.

"Facing continued price pressure driven by the competitive mobile market, mobile carriers have had to take on higher subscriber retention and acquisition costs to support their market positions. This has affected profitability," says Marina Lu, research...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) says that nearly 30% of U.S. broadband households own and use at least one connected health device.

"Demographic trends and limited availability of long-term care services are driving many people around the world to examine independent living at home technologies," says Harry Wang, director, Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates. "In the U.S. and Canada in particular, the private sector is the driving force for this market, and new technologies make independent living both financially viable and technologically feasible.

According to an updated market forecast from ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com), the installed base of active wireless connected devices will exceed 16 billion in 2014, about 20% more than in 2013. The number of devices will more than double from the current level, with 40.9 billion forecasted for 2020.

"The driving force behind the surge in connections is that usual buzzword suspect, the Internet of Things (IoT)," says ABI Research principal analyst Aapo Markkanen. "If we look at this year’s installed base, smartphones, PCs, and other ‘hub’ devices represent still 44% of the active total, but by end-2020 their share is set to drop to 32%. In other words, 75% of the growth between today and the end of the decade will come from non-hub devices: sensor nodes and accessories."

From every technology supplier’s strategic point of view, the critical question is how this plethora of IoT devices will...

September is supposed to be back to school, but here in British Columbia of the frozen north, the public school teachers union and the Provincial government are so far away from each other in their contract positions that the mediator they consulted walked away from the dispute because his involvement had no prospect of success.

It doesn't help that after a previous government gave the union a sweetheart deal on class size and conditions the current one first tore the contract up then lost a lawsuit over the matter. An appeal seems unlikely to succeed, so expect the government to legislate the union back to work by mid October or so. Meanwhile, no prospect of back-to-school technology sales here, especially to the families of teachers in the public K-12 system.

The union executive needs to restrain its desire to control the classroom and moderate its salary demands, while the government needs to recognize that class...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) finds that roughly 25% of U.S. broadband households with smart home devices experience problems monthly. As a result, interest in tech support services among smart home device owners is strong-57% of consumers with an IP security camera and 58% of consumers with a smart electronic door lock or thermostat would value tech support services for these solutions.

"Smart home packages currently hold broad appeal among U.S. consumers, and last week, Parks Associates announced nearly 4% of U.S. households will have a smart home controller by the end of 2014, with an estimated increase to nearly 6% by 2015," says Patrice Samuels, research analyst, Parks Associates. "Support providers must be equipped to handle the growing demand for on-boarding and ongoing enablement services to ensure that consumers have optimal experiences with their smart home...

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight (www.berginsight.com), the global number of mobile network connections used for wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communication will increase by 21% in 2014 to reach 213.9 million at the year-end.

East Asia, Western Europe and North America are the main regional markets, accounting for around 75% of the installed base. In the next five years, the global number of wireless M2M connections is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9% to reach 599.7 million in 2019. The mega-trend driving technology adoption in Europe and North America is what Berg Insight calls the concept of connected management.

"The IT-revolution has created new opportunities to collect and analyse data for the purpose of managing objects and behaviours," says Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst, Berg Insight. "Connected management is based...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) says that nearly 4% of U.S. households will have a smart home controller by the end of 2014, with an estimated increase to nearly 6% by 2015.

The research group's study, which includes data from a 1Q 2014 survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households, also reports 64% of all smart devices currently in households operate as part of a security or home controls system. Smart devices include motorized door controls, lighting controls, networked security camera, and programmable thermostats, among other devices.

"The smart home is an emerging market with multiple channels, from service channels to retailers such as Staples and Lowe's," says Tom Kerber, director, Research, Home Controls & Energy, Parks Associates. "The majority of smart devices installed today were acquired as part of a security or home controls system deployed by providers...

MarketsandMarkets (www.marketsandmarkets.com) says the indoor location market will be worth US$3.9 billion by 2019. The pressing needs from the end customers for location based services are playing the major role in defining the future of the market, adds the research group.

The advent of hybrid positioning systems, location based analytics and real time tracking and navigation solutions are the products of huge demand for indoor location based products. Companies are putting sincere efforts in building customer specific products. Major players in this market are Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Ericsson, Google, Nokia, Microsoft, Motorola, Qualcomm and Siemens.

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) says that the number of connected digital trackers sold worldwide rose from 6.6 million in 2012 to 13.6 million in 2013 and will double again in 2014 to exceed 22 million. Factors driving consumer adoption of these device include the impact of new solutions such as the Fitbit, Google Fit, and Apple's HealthKit.

"Connected trackers will account for 52% of all digital fitness tracker unit sales in 2014 and reach 81% by 2018 (66 million units)," says Harry Wang, director, Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates. "Smart watches are another wearables category poised for tremendous growth, with sales of almost 18 million units worldwide in 2014 and 121 million in 2018. These connected devices open new avenues for new fitness apps, health solutions, and data analytics. Connected Health Summit features multiple sessions with industry...

4K or Ultra HD is the future, but it’s a marathon, not a sprint to higher resolutions. And while 1080p TV screens are the norm and mobile screen resolutions continue to climb, plenty of streamed HD content is still distributed in 720p or lower. Over-the-top (OTT) services such as Netflix, VUDU, and M-GO, which exclusively distribute content over the Internet, are more eager to embrace 1080p and Ultra HD for connected CE devices in order to appear more innovative, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Meanwhile, traditional distributors, with regards to TV Everywhere content, are more likely to settle for 720p as they consider smartphones and tablets the primary targets; continuing to leverage existing Pay TV services as their "main" distribution channel for TVs – OTT operators likewise favor lower resolutions for mobile devices.

Cyber-attacks directed against enterprises have grown both in numbers and sophistication over the past decade to a point where breach and data theft have become inevitable, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). In 2013, more than 800 million records were exposed as a result of data breach incidents.

A number of organizations including online auction site eBay, U.S. retailer Target, telecom operator AT&T, and social networking sites Facebook, Gmail, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn have reported massive data breaches in recent months, according to the research group. Hacking remains the leading cause for most attacks followed by malware and physical attacks such as point-of-sale intrusions and card skimming.

A data breach incident can have disastrous consequences on all businesses resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue and potential fines, not to mention the lingering impact on...

The overall US video entertainment market (subscription Pay-TV, box office, packaged home video, Pay-TV VoD and paid-for online video) continues to grow in low single digits, reaching $120 billion in 2013 — a 2% increase on 2012 — and is on track to peak at $123 billion in 2015, according to the latest industry report from Futuresource Consulting (www.futuresource-consulting.com).

"At $120 billion, this approximates to an average of $1,000 being spent on video entertainment by every US household," says David Sidebottom, senior market analyst, Futuresource Consulting. "This is by far the highest in the world, and significantly higher than any European country."

The US video market commands a unique position on the world stage, driven by an extensive choice of viewing options and a strong culture of new technology adoption: digital video spend in the US is larger than the rest...

According to new data from the IDC research group (www.idc.com), recent volatility will gradually give way to a more positive outlook for IT spending in the second half of 2014.

With the U.S. and other mature economies mostly heading in the right direction and a significant commercial PC refresh cycle already underway, improvements in business confidence are set to drive a moderate infrastructure upgrade cycle over the next 12-18 months, while investments in software and services will continue to accelerate, says the research group.

Worldwide IT spending is now forecast to increase by 4.5% in 2014 at constant currency, or 4.1% in U.S. dollars. A significant proportion of this growth is still being driven by smartphones – IT spending excluding mobile phones will increase by just 3.1% this year in constant currency (2.8% in U.S. dollars).

Aside from smartphones, the strongest growth will come from software,...

New research just released by GVA Connect (gatewaydatacentre.co.uk), the data center specialist division of property adviser GVA, showed that the take-up of data center space by end users such as corporate occupiers, government agencies and IT Integrators more than doubled in the first half of 2014 compared to this time last year.

"With continued acquisition by data center operators through 2013 and a sharp increase of end user take up in Q1/2014, our research shows the continued growth in take up of both co-location and wholesale data centre space by end users which is rewarding those commitments by operators to expand existing sites as well as developing new sites," says GVA Connect director Charles Carden.

Total take up (including operators and end users) in H1/2014 increased by 14% compared to the same period in 2013. Within that, the volume of end user transactions more than doubled from a total of 13MW in H1/2013 to 30MW in H1/2014.

Mobile operators will remain the main beneficiaries with spending on mobile data accounting for over $254 Billion, or 67.3 percent, of total mobile media revenue by 2018. Strong mobile advertising revenue growth will eclipse consumer spend on premium content, rising at just below 20% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the next five years.

In advanced mobile media regions, like North America and Western Europe, demand for web browsing, games, apps and social media services will continue to drive mobile data...

Software Updates via MacUpdate

SpamSieve 2.9.27 - Robust spam filter fo...

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VueScan 9.5.62 - Scanner software with a...

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Fantastical 2.3.2 - Create calendar even...

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PCalc 4.4.4 - Full-featured scientific c...

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Alfred 3.2.1 - Quick launcher for apps a...

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OmniPlan 3.6 - Robust project management...

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Backblaze 4.2.0.990 - Online backup serv...

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AppDelete 4.3.1 - $7.99

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Apple GarageBand 10.1.4 - Complete recor...

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Adobe Lightroom 6.8 - Import, develop, a...

Adobe Lightroom is available as part of Adobe Creative Cloud for as little as $9.99/month bundled with Photoshop CC as part of the photography package. Lightroom 6 is also available for purchase as a... Read more

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MyTona, based in the chilly Siberian city of Yakutsk, has brought a little festive fun to its hidden object game Seekers Notes: Hidden Mystery. The Christmas update introduces some new inhabitants to players, and with them a chance to win plenty of... | Read more »

PINE GROVE 1.0
Device: iOS Universal
Category: Games
Price: $1.99, Version: 1.0 (iTunes)
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Niantic teases new Pokémon announcement...

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3 reasons why Nicki Minaj: The Empire is...

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Clash of Clans is getting its own animat...

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Leaks hint at Pokémon GO and Starbucks C...

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DietSensor, Inc., a developer of smart food and nutrition applications designed to fight diabetes and obesity and help improve overall fitness, has announced the launch of its DietSensor app for... Read more

Best Buy has dropped their price on the 64GB Apple TV to $159.99 including free shipping. That’s $40 off MSRP.
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12-inch Retina MacBooks, Apple refurbished, n...

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Apple has Certified Refurbished 13″ MacBook Airs available starting at $849. An Apple one-year warranty is included with each MacBook, and shipping is free:
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Apple refurbished iMacs available for up to $...

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Apple’s Education discount saves up to $300 o...

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